1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for securing cargo on trucks and similar cargo transportation vehicles having designated cargo carrying space and, more particularly, to a system for securing cargo in the bed of a truck such as a pick-up truck or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pick-up trucks have achieved great popularity, having a cargo bed with a substantially rectangular horizontal floor frequently between four and six feet wide and six and ten feet long, and with vertical sides between one and three feet high. Typically, stationary walls form the front and two adjacent sides, and a removeable or hinged tail gate forms the remaining rear side and provides access to the bed floor for cargo loading and unloading. The trucks are thus particularly suited to carry any article of most any size, even approximating the bed size.
However, as many bed floors are relatively smooth and flat, any carried article(s) smaller than the cargo bed itself can slide about on the bed floor under the dynamic forces created when the truck is being driven. Plastic bed liners for the cargo bed might provide greater friction against the carried article(s), but not enough to preclude that the carried article(s) do not yet slide around in the bed. A sliding article could fall from the truck, or could smash against the cargo bed sides to cause damage to the truck or itself and/or create instability in the driving characteristics of the truck. Thus, it is desirable and common when easily possible to secure the carried article(s) relative to the bed.
One common way of securing these carried article(s) relative to the cargo bed, which article(s) shape(s) and size(s) are not necessarily the same shape and size of the cargo bed, is to wrap a flexible tie line around or over the carried article(s) and to connect the ends of the tie line to some fixed anchoring means on the truck body. Known anchoring means include: an anchoring bracket adapted to cooperate with an elongated C-shaped channel in order to slide axially therealong to any position along the track, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,784, issued in the name of Yanke; a quick tie load binding system, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,232, issued in the name of Shuker; and an elongated unitary tie-down rail adapted to fit the top ledge of the sidewall of a truck bed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,382.
However, within the practical limits of the overall number of such anchoring structures provided with any typical cargo bed, there nonetheless will only be a specific number of anchoring structures and only then at specific fixed locations relative to the bed. Because of this and the fact that the article(s) could be of virtually any random size, the required routing of the tie line(s) frequently may yet provide inadequate or marginal means to hold the article(s) securely relative to the truck bed. Further, even extra tie lines to bolster the marginal routing paths require an extra and unnecessary consumption of time to secure and unsecure, particularly for only one person. Moreover, the tie lines that are used in conjunction with anchoring means can damage secured article(s) in transit.
Another problem occurs from efforts to provide retaining slots at predetermined lengths along the sides of the bed to receive a cross member, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,947, issued in the name of Bott. In this art, article(s) are loaded onto a pick-up truck and then a cross board is slipped into slots on the gate side of the articles. One disadvantage with this approach is that the slots merely provide a gross sectioning means that may or may not securely match the size(s) of the article(s). Therefore, typically the board will either fail to abut the articles, thereby permitting their freedom of movement, or the articles themselves must be sufficiently compressed in order to fit the board into a slot in a securely abutting position.
Consequently, a need has been felt for providing a system which overcomes the problem of securing randomly sized cargo during transportation in the bed of a pick-up-truck and similar vehicles, whereby the securing system is easily and efficiently operable by one person, as well as adjustable when securing by abutting firmly against varying sized cargo in the cargo bed without causing damage to the secured cargo.